Desert Invasion - U.S.

Roger Barnett owns a 22,000 acre ranch (35 square miles) along the border in southeastern Arizona. The ranch lies from 2 to 5 miles from the Mexican border. In the past 6 1/2 years, Roger Barnett, with only the help of his wife and brother, has apprehended nearly 12,000 illegal aliens on his ranch. Mr. Barnett has testified before Congress on the illegal immigration problem. No action has been taken.

Update, February 10, 2009: We need to clarify that Roger Barnett is not associated with this website and that we are not able to forward emails to him from this website. However, we are very concerned that Roger has been sued by 16 illegal aliens he found and detained on his property. The trial completed on February 17, 2009.

If you wish to send a donation to Roger for legal expenses by check, please send it to:

by Credit Card: call Barnett's Towing.
Tell them you want to make a credit card contribution to the Roger Barnett Legal Defense Fund.
At this time, there is no mechanism for making credit card contributions over the internet.

Press Release, Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), February 18, 2009.
The jury in Tucson rejected nearly all of the substantive claims brought by MALDEF against the Arizona rancher in 2004. Federal district judge John M. Roll also threw out related conspiracy complaints against Mr. Barnett's wife Barbara and his brother Donald, and dismissed the claims brought by ten illegal aliens who did not testify in court.

Also listen to this podcast announcement about the win by IRLI. IRLI explians how MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) and the Mexican government collaberated together to find a case that would successfully intimidate Americans from defending their rights.
Podcast part 1 and
part 2.

Roger Barnett case verdict, blog report by David Hardy, one of Roger's defense lawyers, February 17, 2009 (several photos used as trial evidence are included below).

Border vigilante ordered to pay in SPLC-sponsored suit, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) report, December, 2006:
"An Arizona jury, acting in a lawsuit sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, ordered border vigilante Roger Barnett to pay $98,750 to a family of Mexican-Americans he terrorized in 2004."

The SPLC is well-known for their open borders position and bigoted and vicious attacks on those who propose to curtail illegal immigration. Here is a response to their attacks by one individual.

A few of the photos used during the trial

Border Patrol, ranchers and bales of drugs

Border Patrol, ranchers and illegal aliens

Border Patrol and illegals

Border Patrol and bales of drugs

Trash left by illegals

Photos by Donald Barnett, Bisbee, Arizona

Line of illegals moving across Roger Barnett's ranch, Cochise County, Arizona, on the Arizona-Mexican border.

A pick-up truck loaded with mixed-nationality illegals. Had these illegals not been apprehended, they would have funneled through safe houses in Tucson and Phoenix and from there they would have been transported to their destination cities in America's heartland.

A group of illegal aliens takes a rest break on a well-travelled trail that crosses the Barnett ranch. Donald Barnett called in the Border Patrol, who apprehended this group. Barnett stated that "There were people in this batch from Brazil, Salvador, Costa Rica and some Arab countries."

Although Roger Barnett testified before Congress, the U.S. Government has deliberately failed to secure our southern border from invasion. Here is a photo of the type of fence the Department of Homeland Security is installing south of Roger Barnett's ranch to stop illegal aliens.
Photo courtesy American Patrol - see the ABP website for daily news articles and updates. See more ABP photos.

Here is a night video that a local Arizona person took of illegal aliens entering into the United States. This is not on Roger Barnett's ranch - it is a few miles away from his ranch, near the town of Sierra Vista. This is an example of the many groups of illegals trespassing on Roger's property every night.

Excerpts from an interview with Roger Barnett, April 2004

Barnett: We've turned over to the Border Patrol close to 12,000 [as of April, 2004]. That's on just weekends, too, in probably 6 1/2 years. Last weekend, we did 71. In 2003, we only did 1,480. The year before that, in 2002, was 2,369. 2001 was 2,068. And so far this year it's 1,068.

Question: Why are apprehension numbers are on the way to triple this year - was it due to Bush's proposed amnesty?

Barnett: When George Bush said he was going to give amnesty (or a Guest Worker program or whatever), I know damned good and well that's what it was.

Question: Do you track illegals on your property?

You know sometimes I can track those guys - you know they'll go through the place and they won't leave tracks at all. But when they get to their location where they are going to lay up - here lately they've been laying up half a mile to a mile before they get picked up - sometimes it's two miles... They'll lay all their trash there, then walk another mile or two miles or maybe half a mile to where they get picked up and they don't leave trash there - they try to hide it.

There could be probably 50 safe houses in this area [Douglas]. From here they transport them to Phoenix. I had a friend - he's in Rhode Island. And he was telling me that when he flew back there, there were illegal aliens on the plane from Phoenix that flew with him. Then they're taking the ferry across to Lock Island (sp) and they're working for landscapers... It leads me to believe that they go to Phoenix first and from Phoenix they shoot them out to wherever they are going.

Question: So there have to be safe houses in Phoenix?

Barnett: Oh, yeah, there's a tremendous amount up there... You can read about it... they raided this place, they raided that place, 180 people in this home - [now] they don't talk about it... and I just wonder if they're still doing it.

Just like [Asa] Hutchinson the other day - he get's up in Tucson and shakes his finger... we're going to put 200 more agents on the line, we're going to shut this down... but we won't start it until June. Well, what he did was give a secret message to Mexico, to the Mexicans, and the smugglers: you better hurry the hell get it over here because after June you might not be able to do it. So that's why they're coming right now, too, big time.

Another time, too, remember when they had that shooting up there on the interstate? They killed 3 or 4 people up there. That's when Fox was in town...
In a round about way they told them you better not do it again because we're going to shut you down.

And what they did, they shut them down for 45 days... but after that, they turned it loose - I mean they just slapped them on the hand. "See what we did, now? We kept you from working for 45 days. Don't let it happen again or we may have to shut you down again for another 45 days." Our Federal Government is the biggest kook there is.

[David] Aguilar - he's the chief of the Border Patrol Tucson Sector. He was speaking to us one night in Douglass - he was preaching about how good a job he's done... He said "we got it shut down, we going to keep it shut down, we're under control." ... I told him you don't have it under control... because I can see the tracks - I know how to track - I can go out there and see the groups coming through - there's thousands coming through... Aguilar said "I've got it shut down so good - these are hikers... enjoying the Arizona countryside more now." And this is the middle of July! I mean you don't go out there and hike in the middle of July in the desert! I mean they try to lie to us all the time - they'll look you right in the eye and lie to you... They don't care about their country, about citizenship.. . they don' give a damn because they're looking out for their own pocketbooks.

Aguilar - we were talking to him in 2002, July, right about the first of the month... He had one of his agents in Douglas and one of his helicopters took that agent up and they flew from Douglass to the New Mexico line - probably 25, 35 miles - that agent was supposed to hang out of the helicopter and look at the tracks going across and count how many people have come across.

Question: Can they do that?

Barnett: They can do it - you better believe they can! They got there and the agent said "I think it's 1,400 - 1,500". Per night! I mean that's the middle of July! And he's got it shut down?

So they go back and start thinking Jesus Christ, we can't report that thing. So he goes and puts down on a report 800 or 900 people he counted.
And then all of the agents from then on said "are these some of the hikers and campers the chief's talking about?"

Question: Have you felt endangered?

Barnett: Oh, yeah. Several times you can just feel the hate in their eyes and you don't want to turn your back on them or they would hurt you. They're illegals. We don't get hold of mules [drug runners], I mean they run so much faster... I yell at them and they don't stop a bit. I've only caught one - scared the shit out of him so bad he passed out on the side of a mountain.

Border Patrol agents on the ground, they said if they were in the same position I was in, they'd be doing the same thing. Most of the supervisors... they appreciate it too. There's only a few at the top that don't like it because I think they think it's an embarrassment.

Last year they had agents at least on weekends when we were there, trying to keep us from catching them. In fact, I've had different agents come out and follow me around, and I said "what are you following me around for" and they said "well, we've got orders - you're not to catch nobody this weekend".

Question: Do you put these people at gunpoint when you catch them?

Barnett: Don't need to. Generally they give up. With authority, you just tell them to sit down, and they sit down.

Question: And you call the Border Patrol in...

Uh, huh.

Question: And you have how many friends helping you do this?

Myself, my brother and my wife.

Question: 12,000 in the last 6 1/2 years by a 3 person... oh my...

Barnett: Sometimes when I'm driving down the road, I'll see a group of 12, 15, or even one, I'll call Border Patrol and I'll stand there until they get there.

Question: What about trash?

Barnett: I bought that place in 95. My grandparents used to be out there close by, they had a ranch - they worked on it in the 40's and 50's and 60's. It was just pristine. There were aliens coming through, back in '95 I remember seeing 3 or 4 of them at a water hole... They wanted to know which way Phoenix was ... They were the only ones I can remember seeing in '95.

When I'd be going through the ranch, driving there, I'd see a piece of trash up on a mountain. I'd walk 200, 300, 400 yards up on the mountain to get that piece of trash. Now - pretty soon, it was like you couldn't do it. Right now, I won't pick it up because some day, I think if our government gets up off their ass and does the job they're supposed to, they're going to quit coming across and I can make one big concentrated effort, if I'm still alive, to get the trash off.

But then it's going to take quite a feat because some of those canyons, some of those mountain tops, it takes an hour and a half to walk to the top and there's trash dumps up there. It's going to take 20, 30 or 40 people with garbage bags to carry it off... of one particular area.
Some days, I think what the hell am I doing this for?

My brother and I bought these seismic sensors and we have a repeater and everything and we have these monitors in our trucks and in our house. So we know when people are in the area so we can start looking for them. Several times, we used to sit on mountain tops with real high-powered glasses and we could see out 6-7 miles and see them walking... [now] if they're coming in the daytime, they're down in the bottom of a wash so we can't see them by binoculars. We're getting sharper and they're getting sharper. So it's a cat and mouse game.

Barnett: They won't listen. They're useless. Kolbe was down two years ago in Douglas... We talked to him at the Border Patrol station - there were 20 of us and we told him what was going on...

It's like what would happen in other countries, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the farmers would get upset because something wasn't going right and the government would come down saying "we didn't know that, we'll get it fixed". And they leave the area and say "those dumb bastards, we won't have to go and see them for another two years now". ...
Well, that's what it was, a massage job.

Question: How much cost and time have you spent defending your land?

Barnett: Oh, 100 days a year ... From sun-up until sundown. What's my time worth? ... sensors, night vision... It's got to be a hundred thousand. A hundred thousand plus.

They stole my water truck the other day - I got it back. They hurt the motor - I've got to replace the motor - there's no compression. That's going to be a $5,000 job for the motor.

I've have these floats in the water troughs, that way it would stop the water from flowing in to the trough. They got to where they were breaking them off! And they would punch holes in the hoses. At one time, you could go out there and check the water once a day in the summertime when you have cattle out there. Now in the summertime you need to go out two and three times to make sure the cattle have water - that the bastards haven't tore up something and let all the water out, because if that cow goes without for too long, well, it's done for.

Question: Do other ranchers spend that much?

Barnett: Those other ranchers around me, they have more stuff to take care of than I do. There are several ranchers north of me, they will go out on occasion, they'll have a night vision scope borrowed. They will go out at nighttime and turn aliens in whenever they see them. They've got sensors - cheap sensors that the Army used to use. The sensors I have, I can be 40 miles away and they'll talk back to me. The ranchers will stalk aliens and turn them in, but they won't detain them - they don't feel comfortable doing that. My brother and I used to be deputy sheriffs, so we have some law enforcement training.